The murder of Ronald Holtz
Laramie County, Wyoming · 1974
Overview
Ronald Holtz, a 25-year-old Vietnam veteran, disappeared in late 1974 or early 1975, only months after marrying Alice Louise Prunty, a psychiatric nurse he had met at a Veterans Administration hospital in Wyoming. No one reported him missing and no body was found, so for decades there was no homicide investigation at all. The case broke not through forensic science but through people who finally talked: as early as 1989 a witness told police that Alice had confessed to shooting Holtz in the head while he slept and dumping his barrelled body down an abandoned mine, and Alice's own son later testified to the same admission. After that witness eventually led investigators to the right mine, Holtz's skeletal remains were recovered from a shaft on a ranch between Cheyenne and Laramie in August 2013. Alice Uden, by then 74 and living in Missouri, was arrested in September 2013, convicted of second-degree murder in May 2014, and sentenced to life in prison. She died in custody in 2019.
How it was solved
There was never a missing-person hunt for Ronald Holtz that mattered, because for years no one outside Alice's family knew he was dead. The thread that ultimately convicted his killer was human, not scientific. As early as 1989, an unidentified witness told police that Alice Uden had confessed, in 1975 or 1976, to fatally shooting Holtz in the back of the head with a .22 rifle while he slept, wrapping his body in blankets, placing it in a cardboard barrel, and dumping it down an abandoned mine shaft on a ranch where she had worked as a caretaker. Acting on that account, investigators searched mines in the late 1980s but came up with only the bones of dead livestock and pets. The case stalled for years. The decisive step came in 2007, when the same witness physically showed investigators which mine Alice had described. In August 2013 a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation excavation pulled a barrel of human remains from about 40 feet down that shaft; the back of the skull had a bullet hole, and a .22-caliber bullet was recovered from inside it, matching the confession the witness had relayed decades earlier. DNA testing confirmed the remains were Holtz's. Alice's son, Todd Scott, testified that his mother had admitted to him that she had killed his father by shooting him in his sleep. Alice Uden was arrested at her Missouri home on September 26, 2013. At trial in May 2014 she claimed she had shot Holtz to protect her toddler daughter from him, while prosecutors argued he was asleep; the jury convicted her of second-degree murder. The arrest also unravelled a second cold case: her husband, Gerald Uden, confessed to investigators the day after Alice's arrest that he had shot his ex-wife Virginia Uden and her two sons in 1980.
Sources
- Missouri couple accused in Wyoming of killing ex-spouses, 2 kids over 30 years ago
“Three previous attempts by investigators to find Holtz's remains in the mine, starting in 1989, turned up no more than the bones of dead livestock and pets dumped there over the years. In 2007, the witness allegedly showed investigators where to find the mine where Alice Uden said she'd dumped Holtz's body. An excavation in August uncovered human remains 40 feet down the mine shaft and DNA testing showed they were Holtz's.”
- Woman, 75, convicted of killing husband in Wyoming cold case
“Holtz was a 24-year-old Vietnam veteran whom Uden met at a Veterans Administration hospital psychiatric unit where she worked as a nurse ... Uden claimed she shot Holtz in late 1974 or early 1975 while he threatened her 2-year-old daughter. Prosecutors argued he was asleep when shot.”
- Elderly Missouri Couple Accused of Decades-Old Wyoming Homicides
“Alice Uden, 74, faced first-degree murder charges for killing her ex-husband Ronald Holtz, 25 ... His skeletal remains were discovered approximately 40 feet down an abandoned mine shaft in Laramie County in August 2013 ... a small caliber gunshot to the back of the head, and a .22 caliber bullet was found inside his skull ... Alice Uden's arrest on September 26 led to her husband's apprehension the following day.”
- Senior couple charged with murdering ex-spouses
“As early as 1989, an unidentified witness told police that Alice Uden confessed in 1975 or 1976 to fatally shooting Holtz in the back of a head with a .22 rifle while he slept ... Alice Uden allegedly told that person she'd wrapped Holtz's body in some blankets and placed his body in a cardboard barrel.”
- Gerald, Alice Uden Murdered 4 Family Members
“Alice's son Todd Scott reported to authorities that his mother had confessed to shooting Holtz in the back of the head and disposing of his body in a barrel down an abandoned mine shaft ... In 2013, investigators recovered a barrel containing human skeletal remains from the shaft, with a bullet hole in the back of the skull matching Alice's account ... DNA evidence confirmed the remains were Holtz's.”
- Elderly Spouses Behind Shocking Wyoming Murders That Went Unsolved For Decades
“In 1994, Alice's son Todd Scott reported that his mother had confessed to shooting Holtz ... she 'shot Ronald in the back of the head. She'd then stashed the body in a barrel and dumped it down an abandoned mine shaft' ... She was convicted of second-degree murder (not premeditated) and sentenced to life in prison.”
- The Udens: An Elderly Couple's Homicidal Love Story
“An unidentified witness reported to police in 1989 that Alice had confessed in 1975-1976 to the shooting ... In 2013, investigators recovered a barrel containing human skeletal remains from the shaft ... convicted of second-degree murder ... She died in prison June 12, 2019.”
- Alice and Gerald Uden Now: Are They Dead or Alive?
“Alice Uden died on June 12, 2019, at age 80 ... She was convicted of second-degree murder in 2014 for killing her ex-husband Ronald Holtz in the 1970s ... Todd Scott, Alice's son, testified that his mother had admitted to him that she had killed his father by shooting him in his sleep.”
- Wyoming Supreme Court Rejects Convicted Killer Gerald Lee Uden's Appeal
“In 1980, Gerald Lee Uden murdered his ex-wife Virginia and two adopted sons, Reagan and Richard, in Fremont County, Wyoming ... Uden pleaded guilty in 2013 to three charges of first-degree murder ... 'We agree with the district court that it is difficult to imagine how Mr. Uden could credibly assert a bona fide factual innocence claim given his detailed admissions.'”